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EXCLUSIVE: REMINGTON ARMS NEW OWNERS DISCUSS FUTURE OF ILION PLANT & WORKERS

The question mark has been replaced by an exclamation point; new owners say that Remington Arms will remain in Ilion.

ILION, NY - The question mark has been replaced by an exclamation point; new owners say that Remington Arms will remain in Ilion.

"No matter what, we will keep a footprint in Ilion. That's 100%. It's the legacy of the company, so I don't see Ilion ever going away, not as long as I have anything to do with the ownership," says Managing Partner Richmond Italia. "So, definitely, we will always keep a footprint there. Question is, how big will that footprint be?"

It will be much smaller, at least to start.

"We've agreed to bring back 200 hourly employees, as we discussed earlier. Anything more than that basically comes down to our negotiations with the state," says Italia.

Roughly 700 people worked at the plant recently, including the 200-250 who worked on the Marlin line, which was bought, at auction, by Sturm, Ruger & Co. Italia says Remington Arms will be strictly an outdoor/sporting company, and will not make military weapons.

Local state lawmakers are already working on making sure Remington stays in Ilion... or close.

"I even have calls in to the governor's office today, to get the governor involved in the effort," says Senator James Seward. "Those connections are being made as we speak and those conversations will begin in earnest very very soon."

While the new owners are aware of Remington's iconic name and presence in Ilion, and are committed to preserving both, they say the Ilion plant is outdated and does not lend itself to safe, large-scale, efficient production.

"Unfortunately, the legacy building that we have in Ilion, based on four floors is just not ideal for manufactuirng in today's age," says Italia. "So, the ideal scenario is to basically find and move into maybe retrofit another building that somebody had left behind or build new."

Senator Seward is on that, as well.

"We've already started discussions in terms of alternate sites, locally, right near their current site," says the senator.

Italia says the Round Hill Group, which recently bought Remington Arms at auction, is committed not only to growing in New York State, but also to preserving the jobs of the people who work at the Ilion plant, who, he says, are the best at what they do.

"Am I open to other areas of New York? Only if they're within commuting distance of our employee base. Because the only reason we're considering New York is because of the employee base."

Both the company The United Mine Workers of America say the union isn't going anywhere.

"We don't anticipate the union leaving Remington at all," said Phil Smith, Director of Communications and Government Affairs, UMWA. "I don't want to presuppose what our position would be at bargaining, but our goal here is to make sure all of our members get back to work, back to the same jobs they were working before, back to the same pay rate they were working before."

Smith says the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is taking over the pension plan, and members should see no change in benefits.

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Originally posted by bigdeal:
Good luck with the future of Remington, but IMO leaving it in NY was a bad first step.

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Originally posted by 6guns:
I'm sure there is way more to it than I realize, but it's always baffled me why some gun manufacturers stay in leftist states.

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Originally posted by 6guns:
I'm sure there is way more to it than I realize, but it's always baffled me why some gun manufacturers stay in leftist states.

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Originally posted by 6guns:
I'm sure there is way more to it than I realize, but it's always baffled me why some gun manufacturers stay in leftist states.

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Originally posted by bigdeal:
...IMO leaving it in NY was a bad first step.

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Originally posted by cas:
As for toxic, there's always been theory that there's 200 years of industrial mess in the ground there, and if they leave they'll have to foot the bill for cleaning it up. To what degree that is true I din't know.

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Originally posted by Il Cattivo:

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Originally posted by cas:
As for toxic, there's always been theory that there's 200 years of industrial mess in the ground there, and if they leave they'll have to foot the bill for cleaning it up. To what degree that is true I din't know.

Quite possible. In theory the EPA can declare somewhere a brownfield at any time. If they do so, any owner or tenant of the ground at any time can be held liable for the full cost of cleanup. That owner or tenant is then responsible for tracking down all the other owners and tenants in the history of the property and taking them to court to recover their proportional share of the costs. The question that leaves open, of course, is the effect of the bankruptcy. Not that the EPA would care, of course - as long as they get one owner or tenant they got a sucker on the hook.

Having said that, no competent adviser or land monkey working for the buyers would have allowed the buyers to buy the land unless they had done a careful examination of the ground and knew how much of an environmental liability the buyers were buying into.

The buyers could have also, of course, worked out some kind of deal with whoever was overseeing the bankruptcy as well as local government, since local governments have long played a role in brownfields clean-ups, and are used to setting up "action groups" with the EPA, state agencies and land owners to deal with the problem. Local governments are also accustomed to offering tax breaks and other assistance in order to keep local jobs viable.